


Lovers' Embrace

by Sashas_Fierceness



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:16:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22764601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sashas_Fierceness/pseuds/Sashas_Fierceness
Summary: The Mandalorian and Cara land on the planet of Elrood just in time for holiday of Lovers' Embrace. Basically Star Wars Valentine's Day alright?
Relationships: Cara Dune & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Comments: 37
Kudos: 98





	Lovers' Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> This fic borrows from "Trouble" by Writesometimes. Go check it out if you love Mando/Cara fics and you clearly do because you are here.
> 
> This is a belated Galentine's Day gift for all the awesome ladies I have met through the Din/Cara fandom. Sorry it is late...I'm gay? We are known for two things, drinking iced coffee and showing up late...usually because we had to stop and get iced coffee.

Cara Dune opened one eye and grumbled into the bedding. She focused in on the noises coming from the living area of the two-room suite she and her companions had managed to secure in the city of Elrood despite the occasion.

“You are very lucky,” the inn’s proprietor had told them as they checked in. “This time of year, everything is sold out months in advance.”

Lucky was a subjective term, and Cara didn’t know if it applied to a suite so small the fresher door connected with the bed frame every time someone opened it.

Cara heard a squeal ring out in the main room. She was grateful it sounded like a happy squeal not one that signaled distress, fussiness, or a shitty diaper. Still, she had her suspicions regarding what brought on the squeal and she let out a frustrated huff in response.

Cara could picture the scene in the main room perfectly. Picture a 12 x 18 room, furnished in that nondescript way all inns are, with a dining and living area that bleed into one, and a countertop with a stupidly small refrigerator unit beneath it which is meant to pass as a kitchen. In the dining area, or as Cara would call it, a table big enough for four people to sit at, picture a small green alien perched on the tabletop. The little creature has huge brown eyes, floppy ears, and three digits on each hand and foot. Imagine the child is too cute for his, and Cara’s, own good.

Sitting in one of the chairs belonging to the table is a man. Not just a man, but a Mandalorian. He might be dressed in a full suit of beskar armour. He may not. Cara suspects not now, in which case, imagine a slim, tall man wearing black soft pants and a long-sleeved shirt that would not look out of place under his armour. The man has likely left off his helmet to reveal a handsome face made up of a scruffy beard, a mustache, and a shock of wavy hair that is shorter than usual thanks to Cara’s efforts with a small pair of scissors, but still standing on end from a morning spent under a helmet. 

The man’s hair, on his head and his face, is the same medium brown colour. His eyes are darker, more like bitter chocolate, and his smile, if he is indeed smiling, and Cara suspects he is, it is the kind of smile that makes her do stupid things.

♥♥♥

Cara isn’t sure when she started doing stupid things because of Din Djarin, Mandalorian and foundling father. Maybe it was when he’d first shown up on Sorgan, and after roundly kicking his ass she saw fit to pour out her whole life story to him and his youngling over a bowl of soup? Maybe it was when she agreed to help him root some bad guys out of a small farming village on the same planet and wound up squaring off against an Imperial walker?

Maybe her dumb assery began later, when he’d returned to Sorgan and asked her to help him take the fight to the Imperials who were after his kid on Nevarro? She had definitely gone somewhat soft when she’d been lying over him, mid-battle, begging him not to die in a burned out cantina. Maybe it was watching him use the jetpack later? Cara always did have a thing for men of action. Greef Karga had called Din’s fight with Moff Gideon’s Tie Fighter, “impressive”. Cara’s mind had swung more towards panty dropping.

But that thought had scared her. Scared her enough to decide right in that moment she was not going to accompany Din and the child on the next phase of their adventure. Cara had heard the disbelief and disappointment in Din’s voice when he realized she was staying on Nevarro, but she didn’t let it change her mind. Not when she was inches away from falling for a man that could not, and likely would not, ever forsake his creed for her. Cara didn’t want Din to lose his soul on account of her, but that didn’t mean she wanted to spend the rest of her days stuck in a small ship with a man who would not be able to return her feelings.

Instead, Cara had done her best to make a life for herself on Nevarro after Din and the child departed. She had taken Greef up on his offer of a job and a chain code rejig. She’d acquired a small home she took great pride in. Greef always referred to the squat little house, with the dark green paint job, and the flowerpots outside as, “The only place in this shithole that looks like someone cares for it.”

That was probably how Greef had described the house to Din moments before the Mandalorian and his child showed up on her doorstep for the first time all those months ago. Din had arrived weary and injured from a blaster shot. The kid had just been happy to see her. Somewhere between feeding the pair and treating Din’s wound she had found herself blindfolded and making out with a half dressed Mandalorian. How you might ask?

Well kids, sometimes when a man and a woman love each other very much, the man periodically stops off at the woman’s home between missions to find his child’s people and pushes her boundaries. Eventually, the man takes off his helmet and lets the woman teach him how to fuck her just the right way. The man will then use this newfound skill to convince the woman to join him and his child on their father-son adventures across the Galaxy.

One day, the woman will find herself landing, with the father and son, on the planet of Elrood just in time for that planet’s most obnoxious holiday, The Lovers' Embrace. The Lovers' Embrace occurred three times a year when the two moons of Elrood, Sharene and Lodos appeared only a hands width apart when viewed from Elrood’s surface. The phenomenon lasted for several days during which the locals exchanged love tokens, threw street parties full of red crepe hearts and streamers, and gave one another poetic cards covered in glitter. The people of Elrood also rented a lot of rooms to demonstrate their love for one another, which is why Cara, Din, and the little one were lucky to find lodgings at all.

Cara had taken one look at the shopping district as they searched for an inn and sneered at the explosion of red and pink in every window.

The baby had the complete opposite reaction and gazed with wonder and delight at all the sights and sounds.

“What a bunch of commercialized bantha shit,” Cara said to Din as he tried to control the squirming child in his arms. “Do you know, Elrood sided with the Empire when the Republic fell apart just because the Imps promised them increased commerce? And when they didn’t get it do you think they would join the Rebellion? Nope. Just stayed neutral and now they’re back to trying to make a dime off anything they can.”

Din had just peered at her from behind his T-visor. Cara couldn’t see the expression on his face, but she got the feeling he wasn’t picking up what she was throwing down.

“What?” she asked feeling irritated.

“Nothing,” he replied and brought the kid up to his eye level. “Don’t worry _ad’ika_ , me and you will come back here in the morning when grumpy guts is sleeping.”

Cara gave him a dirty look and tried not to let the way he addressed the kid in Mando’a do funny things to her insides.

♥♥♥

Cara rolled over onto her back and checked the chrono on the bedside table. It was mid-morning. From the sounds coming from the living area Din and the child had been up for some time. So far, she’d heard delighted noises from the baby, the sounds of paper being rumpled, and many different forms of, “sssssshhh” from Din followed by snippets of sentences involving, “Cara’s sleeping”, “surprise”, “Let me help”.

Cara had a sinking feeling Din had made good on his word and taken the kid back to the shopping district. She was convinced the table was probably covered in red and pink paper, drawing sticks, adhesive, and glitter. Cara scrubbed her sleep filled eyes and resigned herself to being emotionally manipulated by a tiny green goober and his annoying father. No doubt the child would soon waddle into her room with some hand drawn approximation of a Lover’s Embrace card and she would have to pretend like the whole situation didn’t make her want to launch herself into space.

♥♥♥

Out in the living area, Din Djarin did have a few flecks of glitter and adhesive stuck to the forearm of his shirt. When he and the kid snuck out in the early morning light, they had passed a craft shop in the market district. The little shop was full of other children either buying supplies to make cards, or making cards there on the spot, and the kid’s eyes had gone large with want. The little one had let out a stream of happy babble while trying to kick his way out of the sling Din had started using to carry him around in.

Din had not been thinking about his and Cara’s relationship when he happily acceded to the child’s demands to purchase some craft materials. He’d only been thinking of how nice and rare it was the kid got to do anything child-like and domestic. Once inside the shop, a kindly woman dressed all in red, who reminded him of Omera, had inquired as to whether his son might like to sit down at one of the many child size tables and make a card along with the other children.

Din had found himself handing the little creature over and then warily hovering around the crafting area as the kid got situated.

Eventually the proprietress had looked up from where she was helping the children cut out hearts and said, “You know, most parents left the kids here to go do errands in the market, or have a caf together…”

Din rubbed the back of his helmet. “I don’t know, he’s pretty little. Not even speaking yet…”

“Suit yourself,” the woman replied. “But I promise to keep a close eye on him if you did want to step out.”

Din thought about it. He could use the time to pick up some breakfast for the three of them. They had brought supplies with them to the inn, but this little outing meant less time to get back and cook anything before Cara woke up. He and the kid had passed a fried dough stand selling flat cakes in the shape of hearts. Cara and the kid were both partial to flat cakes.

“We could do with some things from the market,” Din said. “I mean, only if you don’t mind keeping an eye on him?”

“Not at all,” the woman replied. “Consider it a Lovers' Embrace gift.”

“Thank you,” Din said gratefully before squatting down to address his son. “Okay _ad’ika_ , I’m going to get us some treats,” the child’s eyes lit up as Din continued. “yeah, you know that word, hey? You stay here with this nice lady and I’ll be right back okay?”

The baby responded with a gurgle and a dismissive hand wave. The woman in red chuckled at the child’s response to his father.

Din smirked behind his helmet and looked up at the woman. “I guess I should know when I’m not needed.”

The woman smiled back at him. “I’m sure he will be singing a different tune when you return with the, T-R-E-A-T-S.”

Din exited the craft shop and made his way back to the fried dough stand. The air was perfumed with the scent of the sugar, lemon, and tree syrup used to season the flat cakes. Din purchased enough flat cakes for a small army and was about to head back to the craft store when he heard a cry that stopped him in his tracks.

“Flowers! Flowers for your lover folks! Rare flowers! Alderaanian flame-roses all the way from the Lonatron gardens! Super rare! Going fast!”

Din swung around towards the direction of the shout. He spotted a flower stand with a small crowd beginning to line up around it. Din hadn’t been focused on the romantic side of Lover’s Embrace until now. He’d taken the kid out without Cara specifically to not shove her face in the, “commercialized bantha shit” as she put it, while also allowing the kid to have some kid time. He’d figured she was unlikely to turn her nose up at a well-meaning card from the kid, and the flat cakes plus some store bought caf would just be a welcomed treat for them all. But now he found himself striding towards the flower seller with the intent to purchase what could only be construed as a romantic present. He hoped it would be welcomed by its recipient and not treated like an undetonated landmine.

By the time Din made it to the front of the flower seller’s line, he realized two things. The Alderaanian roses were going to come at a dear price, and they were selling out quickly.

“What can I get you?” The flower seller asked.

“A dozen of the Alderaanian flame-roses,” Din replied, price be damned.

“One dozen Alderaanian flame-roses coming up!” The man shouted much to Din’s embarrassment. “We got a big spender here folks! And that’s the last of the roses folks! But we have lots of other beautiful species ready for gifting!”

Din paid the man and watched as the seller made a great show of tying a crimson ribbon around the flowers’ stems. The Mandalorian was thankful for his helmet. The seller’s antics had made him blush, and Din suspected he’d made a few enemies out of some of the people in the line up behind him by purchasing the last of the roses.

As Din navigated his way out of the crowd around the flower stand, he felt a small tug on the empty sling he was wearing. Din looked around but saw no one in his field of vision.

“Hey Mister!” a voice said at Din’s waist.

Din looked down and saw a small boy with pale skin, inky black hair with a mind of its own, and equally dark eyes. Din hoped the kid would someday grow into his ears.

“Hey Mister!” the kid repeated. “How much for the roses?”

“What?” Din asked.

Before Din could question the child further a voice rang out across the market bellowing, “Ben?! Where did you go?! I swear to the Maker, kid, when I find you…”

The bellowing was followed by the sight of a man in a vest, blaster ready at his side, running towards Din and the kid.

“Stars!” the kid cried. “Hurry Mister! How much? Before my Dad catches me!”

“Ben!” the man yelled again as he laid eyes on his wandering child.

The man came to a halt next to Din and the kid. He was a lanky build with sandy brown hair starting to thread with grey. The man doubled over a bit to catch his breath and have words with his son.

“Ben…what…what have I told you…running away?” the man asked between laboured breaths.

“But Dad, he has the roses. The roses from Mommy’s planet.” The kid said while sticking out his bottom lip petulantly and pointing at Din.

“I know buddy. I was in the line up too, remember? But that’s how it works kiddo. First come, first served.” The man explained while standing up to face Din.

“Hey sorry,” the man said while offering a hand for Din to shake. “I hope my kid wasn’t too much of a bother.”

Din shifted the parcel of flat cakes into the sling so he could shake the man’s hand.

“He was fine,” Din replied and then for some reason he heard himself say, “I have a boy too. Younger than him though,” Din indicated to the boy named Ben. “Can’t say words yet. Just babbles.”

“Really?” the man in the vest asked. “That’s a great age. Once they can talk and walk, and run, you’ll be chasing them through marketplaces while they harass locals.”

Ben had the presence of mind to look chastened.

The man in the vest looked up from the boy to the Mandalorian. “Those are for the wife, hey? Your kid’s mother?”

Din didn’t have the chance to correct the stranger before the man spoke again.

“We had the same idea,” he said ruffling his son’s hair. “Me and the kid were just visiting to have a look at the latest starships Elrood’s manufacturing. His mom is from Alderaan, and she survived the, well the you know. Thought it might be nice to bring her back some Alderaanian roses.”

Din looked down at the boy again. He wondered if all those with Alderaanian blood had the same silky black hair and onyx eyes. In another lifetime the boy could have been Cara’s. Din knelt in front of the kid and pulled a rose from the bouquet.

“Here you go,” he held the rose out to the young boy. “Take this home to your mom and tell her the rest went to another Daughter of Alderaan who survived.”

“For real?” the kid asked.

“For real,” The Mandalorian replied.

The child named Ben took the rose gleefully and looked up at his father. “Lookit Dad! We have to get some nutrient water to keep it in for the ride home.”

“You got it kid,” the man said to his son.

Din stood up and the stranger held out his hand to shake again. “Thank you. You made his day. Probably his month.”

“Don’t mention it,” Din replied while shaking the man’s hand. “I hope your wife likes it. I’ve got to get back to my kid.”

“Yeah, yeah of course,” the stranger said. “Well, Happy Lovers' Embrace!”

Din watched as the man and his son melted back into the crowd before turning to make his way back to the craft shop.

♥♥♥

The woman at the craft shop had taken one look at the bouquet and insisted on throwing in a pink glass vase for the blooms-at no charge-before letting him out of the shop. The child had come away with his card, some drawing sticks, a pad of paper, and bag full of chocolate hearts wrapped in shiny red foil.

The child was currently sitting on the dining table drawing on his pad of paper while Din arranged the chocolate hearts in a little trail from the bedroom door to the kitchen area where the roses sat on the counter next to the small sink.

“Okay _ad’ika_ ,” Din whispered as he finished arranging the small chocolates. “Are you ready?”

The baby dropped his drawing sticks and reached out for his father. Din picked up the child, and the card the little one had so painstakingly made, before heading towards the bedroom door.

Din set the kid down a foot from the door. He then stood with his back against the wall and one hand on the doorknob. He indicated for the child to move forward. The card was nearly as big as the kid, and the little one waddled in a weaving pattern towards the door trying to avoid disrupting the chocolate trail. 

♥♥♥

On the other side of the door, Cara rolled onto her side and squeezed her eyes closed. She may have misgivings about participating in Lovers' Embrace celebrations, but she wouldn’t ruin it for the kid. Cara feigned sleep as she heard the door creak open and a small giggle escape the child.

She listened as tiny feet crossed the floor. Once the child was pressed up against her side of the bed Cara felt a tiny tug on the sheets.

Cara opened her eyes and peered down at the child. “Good morning lil’ Man what have you got there?”

The kid held the card above his head and yelled, “Da Dah!”

“For me?” Cara asked while sitting up.

The kid nodded yes and gave her a huge grin. Cara leaned over the bed and picked up the tiny creature and placed him in her lap.

“Let’s have a look at this card,” she said while cuddling the child close.

Cara took in the front of the card. It was made with red paper and had a pink heart on the front surrounded by white lace paper. Glitter had been liberally applied to the inside of the heart. Cara read the missive scribbled inside with purple drawing stick. The writing was unsteady as if someone had let the child hold the drawing stick and then guided his hand to form the letters.

_“Roses are red,_

_I like my milk blue,_

_I love treats,_

_But not as much as I love you!”_

The card was signed by a small outline in drawing stick of one of the kid’s hands.

Cara fought back tears. How dare Din emotionally manipulate her this way? Making her feel all these…feelings.

“I think there might be a few more surprises out here,” the man in question said from where he was leaning against the door jamb.

Cara looked up and came face to face with one of Din Djarin’s best smiles. The slow one that blossomed across his face in waves and usually involved his tongue running over his maddeningly perfect teeth.

Cara told herself she was going along with this bantha shit for the kid who was now tugging on her arm and pointing towards the living area. She wasn’t getting out of bed because Din Djarin smiled at her.

Cara disentangled herself from the sheets and allowed the child to grasp one of her hands to pull her towards the door.

Cara looked at Din and made hand gestures towards her attire which was comprised only of a t-shirt she slept in and her underwear.

Din shrugged and waved off her concerns. “It’s only us here. Nothing I haven’t seen before and he’s a baby.”

The child pulled Cara to the door and then pointed down at the ground to the foiled hearts.

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” the baby chirped.

“Oh wow!” Cara said trying to contain her rising panic. “Should we follow the candies buddy?”

She looked at the trail of red hearts that ran past the dining table and around a corner into the alcove the inn generously called a kitchen. Terror gripped her as she considered what was at the end of the candy trail, but she set out with the child regardless.

Din followed along, oblivious as Cara and the kid picked up one foil heart after the other until they reached the kitchen. He watched from behind as Cara finally unbent and saw the prize at the end of the trail.

Din wasn’t sure what reaction he expected Cara to have, but he didn’t anticipate the way she shook and clenched her hands. He really didn’t expect her to push past him and the kid to make a run for the fresher.

♥♥♥

“Cara?” Din called her name as he banged on the locked fresher door.

The child watched him from the bed where Din had placed him with a few chocolate hearts to keep his small hands busy.

“Cara?” Din tried again. “Can I come in? I’m worried about you and the kid hasn’t had breakfast yet.”

The fresher door cracked open and Cara’s arm shot out to grab him by the shirt and pull him into the tiny fresher. Cara slammed the door behind them.

“What the fuck was that Din?” she snarled when they were chest to chest between the vac and the shower.

Din looked confused but he tried to explain. “I took the kid out earlier and he saw this card place. The other kids were making cards. I just thought it would be nice for him to have some kid time…”

He trailed off, unsure what else to say. He couldn’t pinpoint what her anger stemmed from, so he was having a hard time defending his actions.

“And did the kid want you to buy me a dozen Alderaanian roses? Was the candy trail his idea?” Cara asked.

“Eleven,” was the only answer Din could come up with in the face of her rage.

“What?” Cara asked.

“Eleven,” Din said again. “Eleven roses. I did buy a dozen, but there was this kid in the marketplace. His mom is from Alderaan…was from Alderaan…I bought the last dozen. The kid tried to buy them off me, so I gave him one to take home to his mother.”

Cara looked at Din. Of course, he had bought her a dozen roses salvaged from her destroyed homeland, and of course he had given one to a wayward boy to take home to his mother. It was all so… _Din_.

Cara looked at the floor. “You love me.” She said it as a statement not a question.

“I do.” Din answered her just as surely.

Cara turned to her left and punched the fresher’s sole cabinet so hard Din feared it would come off the wall.

He reached for her. “Cara, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“Stop it!” she yelled trying to push him back. “Stop it!”

Din dodged one of her fists and grabbed the other. Once he had both her fists pinned between them in his hands he spoke.

“Stop what?” he asked.

“The cards, and the flowers, and making the kid be adorable, and loving me. You can’t love me.” Cara said hysterically.

“Why not?” Din growled at her.

“Because I can’t love you!” Cara screamed at his face.

Din reeled back like he had been punched and sat on the vac seat. He put his face in his hands.

“Stars Cara,” he mumbled into his hands. “I’m the Mandalorian, but most of the time it’s like you’re wearing the armour.”

Cara felt the tears finally slip past her lashes. She knelt in front of Din and pulled his hands from his face.

“You don’t understand,” she said while fighting to see his face through her tears. “It’s not safe to love me. Because then I’ll love you, and everyone I love ends up dying, and-

Cara let out a sob instead of finishing her thought and Din slid of the vac to gather her up in his arms.

“Hey, hey,” he tried to soothe her. “I’m sorry about the roses okay? I didn’t think about what they might remind you of. Me and the kid we aren’t going anywhere.”

Cara shook her head. “It’s not the roses,” she said against his shirt.

She drew back and looked at him. “It’s us Din, it’s everything. I’m so scared of what happens next. After Alderaan I swore I wouldn’t get attached again. I joined the Rebellion to get back at the people who destroyed my world, but also because I thought I had a good chance of dying in battle.”

“Cara-

She shook her head to indicate he should not speak. “No, you don’t understand Din. I was prepared to be alone after I went AWOL. But then you fell out of the sky in Sorgan and the closer we get, the more normal it gets to wake up with you and the kid, the more frightened I become, because I won’t survive it a second time if I lose my whole world.”

Din grasped her face with both his hands and made her look him in the eye. “Cara, I’m not going anywhere. Neither is the kid. You think I’m not scared of this? Scared for us? Scared for him? I know what it feels like to watch your whole world die and take your family with it. But, Maker Cara…you and the kid…that’s what makes it bearable.”

He looked at her desperately, “Please don’t tell me it isn’t the same for you.”

Cara sniffed and peered at a spot over his shoulder. “It’s the same,” she whispered.

Din pulled her into his chest and laid a kiss on the top of her hair. “Good, because I took off my helmet for you woman. You’re stuck with me now.”

Cara let out a combination of a sob and a chuckle. From the other side of the fresher door the child wailed in distress.

“Kriff!” Cara swore and pulled away from Din. “We must have scared him so bad.”

Din handed her some vac paper to wipe her face. “He’ll get over it. You want some fried dough?”

♥♥♥

After a breakfast of reheated flat cakes and heart shaped chocolates the makeshift family of three headed into the town square to take part in some of the Lovers’ Embrace festivities. Din had told Cara she was welcome to sit the whole business out and he would take the kid, but she had cleaned herself up and thrown on her clothes to join them.

The marketplace was still full of Lovers’ Embrace wares and gifts, but it also had many game stalls for kids of all ages to enjoy. At one point, Cara slipped away claiming she wanted to window shop while Din kept a close eye on the child who was bobbing for red, heart shaped fruit in a large tub of water.

Din barely noticed her absence given how fixated he was on preventing the child from drowning in the fruit tub. When she returned with a smirk and a red bag thrown over her shoulder, he’d inquired about her shopping excursion, but didn’t push when she replied he’d find out what was in the bag later.

Later had turned into much later when the child became irate after dinner with exhaustion, sugar, and the thrill of a day spent with other younglings. It was well after midnight when Din finally got the baby to sleep.

“Is he down?” Cara called from the fresher.

“Yeah, hopefully,” Din said while stumbling into the bedroom. He was fighting with his shirt to pull it off. The kid had vomited the red mystery fruit all over him.

Din won the battle with his shirt and threw it into the bin for the laundry droid to collect in the morning. He flopped down on the bed.

“I left him in his pram in the kitchen,” Din said looking at the fresher door. “I was afraid if I brought him in here, he’d wake up because we’re awake.”

Cara stared at herself in the small fresher mirror and tried not to feel like a cliché. When she had been drifting about the marketplace with one eye on the shops and the other on Din and the kid, she had spotted something so awful it was perfect.

Cara pulled on the straps of the teddy negligée she had purchased on impulse to make up for her less than stellar reaction to Din’s Lovers’ Embrace gifts. The two-piece outfit looked like something from a bad holo-porn and she was sure whatever fabric it was made of, while silky to the touch, was highly flammable. The top had a halter neck and no back. It was held together with ribbons that tied at the base of her neck and the middle of her back. The sheer red material was dotted with little red and white hearts. The best and worst part of the whole get up was, in Cara’s opinion, the panties.

The woman in the lingerie store had told Cara they were perfect for ripping off, as if that was a selling point. Ordinarily, Cara would rather fight Darth Vader than wear a thong, but the two pieces had come together, and been cheap. She wasn’t about to lay out extra credits for more full coverage panties. The thong was held together by the same red ribbons as the top tied at the dip in each hip. The lacey triangle that was supposed to be hiding her lady bits from the world was made of the same sheer fabric as the top.

She gave the top and bottom one last tug before running a brush threw her hair. Cara put down her brush and picked up a small vial of red liquid. The woman in the shop had thrown the vial in with the negligée and winked at Cara suggestively. Cara held the vial up to the fresher light and read the label.

“Rose tint for cheeks, lips, or (wink, wink) nipples”

Cara unstopped the bottle and used a few drops of the liquid on her cheeks and lips. No way was she risking her nipples. The panties alone were a yeast infection waiting to happen, thank the stars she didn’t anticipate wearing them long. She gave her hair one last ruffle before cracking the fresher door an inch.

“Din?” she called.

“Yeah?” he answered blurrily.

“Are you awake?”

“I can be.”

Cara bit her lip. It was now or never. “I think you should be. Because I got you a present to say thank you for the roses.”

Din rolled over to face the fresher door. “Is the gift in the fresher?” he asked.

“Close your eyes if you wanna find out,” Cara replied.

Din sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He covered his eyes with his hands. “Alright,” he said. “My eyes are closed.”

Cara peeked out from behind the fresher door to ensure he was telling the truth. But of course, he was, this was Din. She pushed the door open and padded the two steps from the fresher to the bed.

“Keep you eyes closed,” she said to him before pulling his hands away from his face to place them on her waist. “Okay! Open up!”

Din’s eyes snapped open.

“Happy Lovers’ Embrace!” Cara cried.

Din just continued to stare at her. She watched as his throat bobbed in a way that suggested he might have swallowed his tongue.

He lifted one hand away from her hip and made a vaguely rotational gesture with it.

Cara quirked an eyebrow. “You want me to turn around?” she guessed.

Din nodded, still unable to form words.

Cara bit her lip and turned around in a circle.

“Good?” she asked Din when she was facing him again.

His only response was to run his hands up her front and grasp the top by the bow straining against her cleavage.

“For me?” he asked.

“Uh-huh,” Cara replied looking at him like he might have sustained a head injury.

“Good,” he said before ripping the top in half and pulling her onto the bed with him.

Later, when Cara was pinned beneath Din as he wrapped one hand around her and braced the other against headboard so he could thrust into her like a man possessed she thought Lovers’ Embrace wasn’t so bad after all.

♥♥♥

_Like anyone would be  
I am flattered by your fascination with me  
Like any hot-blooded woman  
I have simply wanted an object to crave_

_But you, you're not allowed  
You're uninvited  
An unfortunate slight_

_Must be strangely exciting  
To watch the stoic squirm  
Must be somewhat heartening  
To watch Shepard meet Shepard_

_But you, you're not allowed  
You're uninvited  
An unfortunate slight_

_Like any uncharted territory  
I must seem greatly intriguing  
You speak of my love like  
You have experienced love like mine before_

_But this is not allowed  
You're uninvited  
An unfortunate slight_

_I don't think you unworthy  
I need a moment to deliberate_

-Alanis Morrissette, “Uninvited”


End file.
